Saturday, June 2, 2018

June 3 2018 “Simply Social Sabbath”

How many of us growing
up remember the days when none of the grocery stores were open. If you did not
get your milk and bread on Saturday, you had to wait until Monday morning. There
were no 24 hour grocery stores. As Sonia told me last week, there were no
restaurants to eat at after church. You ate Sunday dinner at home. [slide # 1 family dinner]

In my generation, we
were ironing Sunday dresses and cooking dinner even on a Sunday, something many
in the generation before us would never think of doing. We can think of each
generation as getting slack on the rules of Sabbath or we can think of each
generation coming to grips with the reality that some rules need not be adhered
to blindly and rigidly, but reflectively, flexibly, respectfully, and
prayerfully. [slide # 2 remember
the Sabbath…] Once when I was studying the Sabbath, I was preparing to
do as little common work as I possibly could. It was a challenge when my mother
asked me to drive her to the grocery store. I asked the Lord what I should do
and I heard God speak to my heart in clear, but simple and paternal tones, “Of
course, you better take your mother to the store.” That put an end to any
notions I had of thinking I had to choose God over my mother. [slide # 3 law of love]

Sometimes we are
frantic about following God’s law. Sometimes we are afraid we will miss our
blessings and bring the wrath of God down on our lives. Rather God wants us to
see the Ten Commandments – and particularly the 4th[ slide # 4fourth commandment] one that tells us
to honor the Sabbath - as a loving hug that binds us to a wise God and binds us
to one another’s affections rather than being a rope that restricts us from
enjoying life! [side # 5 the
greatest commandment, heart]

In our scripture from
Mark, Jesus gives the example of a time when David and his refugee buddies were
hungry and ate the bread that was to be kept constantly at the altar. It was
called the bread of presence. It represented the nurturing, providing presence
of our God. Eating the bread was against the religious, cultural, and spiritual
laws. Since David and his soldiers were hungry, they had good reason to eat the
bread and put the law on hold. They were close enough to God to reason that
eating the bread would not violate the Spirit
of the law.

Jesus emphasized the
spirit of the law when he said in verse 27, ‘The Sabbath was made for
humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath;” God did not make us so we could
follow certain rules of the Sabbath like robots. God made the Sabbath for us so
we could find rest and relaxation and joy in worship and joy in each other’s
presence, and not work ourselves to death. [slide # 6Sabbath
rest]

One of my colleagues
mentioned that his wife had a very high profile job. She was making good money,
but she was so stressed out by the long commute, the inconvenient hours, and
the intensity of the personnel matters that she was under a doctor’s care for
high blood pressure and high glucose levels and other symptoms. As soon as she
retired, her health changed for the better.

One of my relatives has
vascular issues and developed an ulcer on her lower leg. She got a second job
full-time job, planning to make some extra money for a few months and
transition into deciding which job she was going to keep. It has been nearly a
year that she has been working two full time jobs. Family members have grown
accustomed to having her pay for dinners and other goodies. But, she still has
two full time jobs, and now instead of having one ulcer on her leg, she has
two. God made the Sabbath to bless us not to hurt us.

Breaking laws,
religious or otherwise, can be very tempting. It is tempting to roll through a
stop sign when there is no traffic in sight. [ slide # 7 stop sign] We are often in a rush and
can justify doing our own thing. Still, establishing healthy boundaries and
obeying safety rules are good habits that are a blessing for many reasons. [slide # 8 obedience…blessings]

It is important to rest
and not work ourselves to death. Even more important is it to rest in the Lord
after we have done God’s good
and holy work. I love the Isaiah 30 verse where God says, “In returning,
repenting and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and trust is your
strength.”

One thing that has made
us especially rest-less these
days is the type of incident we witnessed in a Starbucks coffee shop. [slide # 9 Starbucks] It
amazes me and gladdens my heart to know that in such incidents, people of many different races take videos
with their phones and speak out against hatred. It was Melissa DePino [ slide # 10 Melissa] who
videotaped the Starbucks incident.

A few months ago, an
incident of the same ilk was discovered at our own United Methodist Albright
College in Reading. Also, it is not unusual to find hatemongers driving persons
to catastrophe because of their sexual orientation or transgender identity. No
human being should be mistreated for any reason. It is good when God sends
somebody to help us see the changes that need to be made for the better.

Our work is to always
be about the mission of helping others find the light of Jesus and having their
lives transformed. [slide
# 11mission of the church…]Our
work is to welcome all who enter into God’s presence with us, to share
outrageous hospitality no matter where they have come from or where they are
going. Our work is to be the hands and feet of Jesus wherever we go. It is not
always an easy work, so God provides rest for our souls.

Pastor Clif Christopher
author of Rich Church, Poor Church tells the story of going to a new church,
having a wonderful first Sunday service and returning to the church that
evening to lead the youth group only to find out that there were no youth, so
he went out through the neighborhood and to the schools and invited the youth
to play basketball and eat hotdogs. After a while, a few members called him in
for a meeting and told him that having all those kids around was causing too
much mess to clean and the money being spent for snacks was not in the budget,
so they wanted to make a new rule: only those kids whose parents were members
could come to the group. That attitude is a far cry from that tells us to show
hospitality without grumbling as I Peter 4.9 instructs us. [slide # 12 show hospitality]

The pastor said now
let’s think about this. What would Jesus do? One member shouted out, “Now you
leave Jesus out of this!”We do well to
remind ourselves on a daily basis that our journey of faith is not about us, it
is about the mission of making disciples for the transformation of the world,
it is about diversity and dialogue and daring to pray trusting God to guide and
provide.

Fortunately, we do remind
ourselves daily as the United
Methodist Church that we are all about the mission of making disciples for
Jesus for the transformation of the world. That is why we encourage bible
studies, VBS, preschool, and camp where children and youth can get a year’s
worth of Christian education in one week. [slide # 13 VBS,
Preschool dates] That is why I work hard to make sure everyone’s gifts
and talents are being used and sharpened, because we need all hands on deck to
equip and strengthen each other to make the journey, to follow Jesus everywhere
he leads. That is why we train and equip ourselves to have good boundaries so
the bullies and perpetrators remain outside and the peacemakers feel safe as
they do God’s work within and without.

We want peacemakers more
so than peacekeepers because peacemakers sometimes have to speak the truth in
love and stir up the pot while peacekeepers tend to keep the peace, even when others
are suffering. Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called
the children of God.

Our Bishop Peggy
Johnson reminded all her pastors one year to work hard to keep an eye out for
those who need Jesus and those who have never been a part of the church before.
It is one thing to work to add members to our rolls from one church to another.
It is another thing to work to welcome those who have never professed their faith or never belonged to the church before.

The story is told of one
church that had a budget of almost 2 million dollars, and they had two persons
join who were new Christians. One expert noted that $800,000 was invested and
only two persons professed Jesus as their savior. He questioned whether they
had their spending priorities in order. The question was raised, should they
spend more money on a mission to encouraged outsiders to follow Jesus? One
member chimed up saying, “Why would we count those who are just now professing
their faith?” It was said as if outsiders do not matter, but outsiders are the
very ones we are called to include in the sheepfold. [slide # 14calling God-starved…]

What is the work we
need to do to reach those who are outside the walls of the church? We received
a generous community grant to help us with the elevator. We were encouraged to
apply for the grant again, but this time we were asked to work as hard as we
could and make a conscious effort to invite persons to serve on our boards who
represented a more diverse population.

As a global church, we
are in competition with many other businesses, like Starbucks that nurture
diversity as a means of keeping the peace and providing good for others in this
world. They too are working hard, doing God’s holy work, even though they
cannot call themselves religious, much less Christian. Such businesses and
organizations, like non-profit hospitals, schools, etc. are financially supported
and being called good by many non-religious folks, while some days, churches
are left behind, wondering why we should even bother to count the outsiders.

Starbucks gave up
millions of dollars to see that their staff was trained to avoid another
inhospitable incident. [slide
# 15 hands…diversity] Perhaps
they were inspired by the church. The United Methodist Church has deep roots in
education and training. Yesterday, a diversity training was held at Cedarville
UMC. At least two from Bethel attended. It is not the first training that
Bethel has been a part of. The Spirit leads me to pray for teachers and
students every day. Education and training is the key to eradicate slavery,
poverty, hunger, illiteracy, unemployment and many other forms of oppression in
our world today. [slide # 16 key on bible]

Education is the key to
promote peace, development and well-being. For two Wednesdays in June on the 6th
and 20th, staff and leaders of Bethel will gather to attend an in-house
training designed to benefit our ultimate mission of equipping and making
disciples who are in the business of transforming our world.

The United Methodist
Church has close to a thousand, if not more, schools, academies, and
universities around the world - Asia-Pacific, Africa, North and South America.Education
is an integral part of the Methodist Movement led by John Wesley and Charles
Wesley in 18th century England. Kingswood School was the first Methodist
school, founded by John Wesley on June 24, 1748, and is still in existence
today. [slide # 17 Kingswood
school]

After we pray for
guidance, educate ourselves, and unite as one body in Christ, we will surely
know what work we must do to reach those who are outside our walls, those who
need our Jesus. [slide # 18 welcome home]

We will do as one of
Allen’s songs reminds us to do, “So you bring the one next to you, And I’ll
bring the one next to me; In all kinds of weather, we’ll all work together, And
see what can be done…”

For many reasons
working hard at welcoming and inviting others to follow us as we follow Jesus
is an overwhelming task. There are so many needs and so many new ideas and
cultural meanings with which to dialogue and digest. It can be exhausting,
sometimes humiliating, and sometimes uncomfortable. Still, it is only after
doing God’s good and holy work that we can find rest! [slide # 19 prayer…God’s rest.] Amen. [slide #20 rest..salvation][slide # 21 make disciples…]

About Me

What a blessing it has been to serve as Bethel's pastor these seven years! From a prayer gazebo, Kelsey's Bridge, and now increasing accessibility with ADA restrooms and an elevator, we are building together!! More importantly, many are readily sharing in worship the ways God is blessing our lives, building our faith and sense of community.
When two teens ask me for time to preach in worship, we know God is moving in our hearts.
The Spirit has been moving in my life since birth. I am one of generations of preachers. I was born and raised in Connecticut in a family of five. Our ancestral roots emerged from the Great Migration from the South in the 40's. I graduated from Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa. and Yale Divinity School before being ordained an elder in the United Methodist Church. I have worked as a social worker, an elementary and high school teacher, community college adjunct professor. God is so good!